


What Makes Us Human

by sophisticus



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Mostly Canon Compliant, Possible Eventual Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-27
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-05-29 14:52:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 20,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15075524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophisticus/pseuds/sophisticus
Summary: Valerie Costas has been hired on to the Detroit Police Department after being busted for hacking by the FBI. She was offered a deal: bring an end to the deviancy cases, for a chance to drop or diminish some of her charges. Of course, this means partnering up with a cranky old drunk of a lieutenant as well as his android sidekick, who seems much more human than his programming should allow.





	1. Introductions (Valerie)

Valerie really wasn’t surprised that she got caught. In today’s technological age, it was a miracle that she’d manage to avoid federal trackers as long as she did.

When the detective showed up at her door, she didn’t try to hide either herself or her gear. She showed him in, fixed him a cup of coffee, and listened quietly as he listed off everything that the government suspected and/or had proof of her sticking her hacking talented fingers into. To the detective’s surprise, she’d not hesitated to confess to everything on the spot – twice, including a second time on recording. Valerie said, however, that before he cuffed her and took her to the police station, she wanted to get something from her multi-screened monstrosity of a computer station.

“How do I know you’re not going to execute some kind of self-destruct program to delete all of your files or something?” he said warily. He hadn’t cuffed her or pulled the gun he undoubtedly kept under his coat, but he didn’t look too far away from it.

Valerie laughed. “You have a recording of me confessing to everything. Deleting my files wouldn’t do shit to help me at this point. Besides, the self-destruct button is over there,” she said, waving lazily at an older laptop off to the side. The detective didn’t seem to know if she was kidding or not, but he nodded in agreement.

“Alright, but don’t do anything stupid,” he warned. “I’ll be watching you.”

Valerie flopped into her chair. Her fingers – both flesh and metal, on her left and right hands respectively – clacked across the keyboard. She pulled up a document on a NanoSoft program, and with a tap of a key sent it printing off to the side. She grabbed the sheet of paper – actual physical paper, not the holographic sheets most places used – and waved it gently through the air, letting the ink dry.

“What’s that?” the detective said warily. She handed it over, and his brow crinkled in confusion. It listed her name, contact information, her address, as well as every single technological trespass she’d been accused of tonight – and then some. If he didn’t know any better, he’d say it looked like…

“My resume,” she answered with a grin. “Shall we go to the police station?”

\---

Like she expected, the detective cuffed her and drove her to the police station. It was crowded with both humans and androids, one of whom she bumped into as the detective dragged her along.

“Sorry,” she muttered instinctively. The android peered down at her, and she thought he looked remarkably human-like. On his coat shone his model – RK800 – which if she remembered right from her snooping in Cyberlife’s servers was a prototype detective model. A highly sophisticated model, if the subtle expressions of his face at her apology were any indication.

Just like that, the moment was over, and the hustle of bodies came between them as the detective whisked her away. That night was a long one – Valerie was stuck in an interrogation room where an officer went over every crime she was being accused of. She confessed to everything without hesitation, even the things they hadn’t known about until she brought in her ‘resume’.

“So, Ms. Costas,” the officer said, clasping his hands in front of him on the table. Below his hands, her case file was open, complete with analyses and pictures and everything. “Not that we’re not glad for your cooperation, but why haven’t you asked for a lawyer? And what’s with you printing out a list of your crimes? You’ve gotten yourself into  _ more _ trouble than you were originally in.”

Valerie leaned forward. The handcuffs tugged at her wrists as she mimicked the officer’s pose. “First of all, it’s Dr. Costas. Let’s be frank, officer. I’m in deep shit. You know it, I know it, the feds know it. There’s no point in me denying it and dragging this out into a tug of war to figure out what I didn’t and didn’t do. Instead, I’m gonna ride this for all it’s worth. Like I told the guy who took me in, this is a resume. You all know what I’m capable of. I want to offer a trade.”

The officer, whose name stitched into his uniform said Cadash, looked incredulous but nodded anyway. “I can’t promise anything, obviously, but I’m listening.”

“I want no prison time,” Valerie rattled off. “No house arrest. And no excessive fines – I’m broke as fuck. I’d have to wire out funds from somewhere else, which would just land me back in trouble and defeat the whole point.”

Cadash laughed. “You’re a goddamn felon,” he reminded her. “What leverage do you think you have to make demands like this?”

Valerie leveled a steely gaze at him. “Deviants.”

The cop froze, the smile fading from his face. “What…what the hell do you mean by that?”

“I know about deviants. I know they’re responsible for a rising number of murders and assaults across the country, and that the police and the government are hushing it up,” she said plainly. “I know that Cyberlife has even built and deployed a whole new prototype of android specifically to hunt down deviants. And don’t worry, I’m not saying all this to like, threaten to reveal it,” she added with a wave of her hand. “I’ve got a doctorate and a rep list a quarter mile long. Surely you can put two and two together, officer.”

Cadash pursed his lips reservedly. “You’re suggesting we put you to use solving the deviancy case, in return for your demands to be acknowledged.”

Valerie leaned back in her chair with a smile. “Precisely.” Cadash looked even more incredulous now than when they’d begun, but shook his head instead of voicing his clear objections.

“I’m done,” he said in a louder tone, glancing towards whoever was behind the two-way mirror embedded in the wall. He stood, gathering her file, and headed out the door without another word.

It took whoever was in charge an entire ten minutes to come to a decision. Officer Cadash came back into the interrogation room, followed by Captain Fowler and another officer she hadn’t seen yet.

“You’re a damn plucky kid,” Fowler grunted. “You’ve got balls of titanium to go demanding all that shit after sticking your nose in top secret government files.”

“Yep.” Valerie popped her lips on the ‘p’. “I take it you’ve come to some kind of agreement?”

He glowered down at her. “We’ve chatted with someone in the FBI and came to a compromise. You’ll be assigned to the detective on the deviancy case. You will use your skills to solve this case expediently and without doing more illegal bullshit.”

“I sense a ‘but’, captain.”

“But,” he said, staring down at her, “if you don’t solve this case before it escalates into an all-out war, we  _ will _ persecute you to the fullest extent of the law, and everything that pertains. And your help solving the case doesn’t guarantee that we can hold up any of your demands, but it might help your case. Capiche?”

Valerie leaned back in her chair, a satisfied smile curling her lips. “We have a deal, captain. When do I start?”

\---

“Ms. Costas, this is Lieutenant Anderson and Connor. They’re on the deviancy case,” Cadash said, leading them over to the desk. It was the next afternoon, but Valerie cradled a cup of coffee as if it were 6am and she’d just woken up. A man with unkempt graying hair and a scraggly beard looked up from his seat, giving her a brief once-over with reddened eyes. If she knew what a hangover looked like - and she did - she’d say that’s what was eating him. Beside him, Valerie was surprised to see the android she’d run into yesterday. He met her stare with that calm gaze of his, but she knew he was analyzing everything about her even as she came to a stop. 

“Don’t tell me we’re running tourists through here now,” Anderson grunted, returning to his computer terminal.

Connor turned and leveled a stare at Cadash. Valerie noted with interest that, while his body language was still slightly stiff enough to betray his android nature, Cyberlife had added all sorts of tiny details to make him look as human as possible: shifting feet, smooth head tilts, microscopic facial expressions shifting from second to second. Hell, he even had faint wrinkles on his forehead, and a mole on his cheek. When he spoke, his voice was softer than she expected. “Actually, it’s Dr. Costas,” he said. “She has a doctorate in both computer sciences and programming, from the University of California in Berkeley, California.”

Valerie laughed a bit, taken aback but pleased that she didn’t have to correct Cadash again. “You’ve done your homework.”

Connor turned back to her and gave her a very, very faint smile. “It’s all in your file that I accessed as you were approaching the desk.”

Cadash snorted. “Whatever. You’re taking her on,” he said to Anderson. “She’s gonna help with the deviancy case. Fowler thinks she can help figure out what’s going on, technologically speaking.”

Anderson swore loudly, finally turning to look them in the face. “Are you fucking kidding me?” the lieutenant demanded. “First I get saddled with an android and now I have to take on some techie nobody? What the actual fuck is Fowler thinking?”

“I’m not a nobody, Lieutenant Anderson,” Valerie said coolly. “Like Connor said, I have doctorates in computer sciences and programming, as well as degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering. I’ve hacked into multiple confidential and heavily encrypted computer systems, including the pentagon, Cyberlife, the CIA, the FBI, as well as multiple overseas nations’ servers. What Connor  _ can’t _ do, I can.”

Anderson snorted. “Listen, kid, this isn’t about how qualified or not you are. I’m not babysitting you on top of the android.”

“It’s not a debate, lieutenant,” Cadash interrupted. “Fowler’s orders. She’s with you.”

Anderson hissed out a breath. “Shit…fine, fine. What the fuck ever. Just pick a desk.”

The only unused desk was, unsurprisingly, the one directly across from Anderson. Valerie slid into the chair, eyeing the blank computer terminal. “Will they shoot me if I get on here?” she said, only half kidding. “In case I’m hacking someone?”

Anderson snorted. “Just don’t do any illegal shit. I don’t want to file the paperwork for it. And you have to share with Connor; my desk is my own space.”

Valerie shot the android a glance, but shrugged. If he was like other androids she’d met, he wouldn’t object to having to share a workspace. She had a feeling he was going to be moderately easier to work with than Anderson, anyway.


	2. Appraisals (Connor)

Date: November 18, 2038. Time: 4:47:23 PM. Systems status: functional.

It had taken Connor 0.4791127 seconds to access and download Dr. Valerie Maria Costas’ file earlier, and it only took that long because it was rather extensive. Multiple disciplinary records (64% of which were altercations with other students, 36% of which were accessing servers and files without authorization) from age sixteen onwards, conflicting with the near perfect school grades. The high grades and clear technical skill allowed her entry into the University of California, Berkeley, CA, graduating class of 2035 second in class. Overall, it was clear that she knew what she was doing.

Currently, Dr. Costas sat in her chair, hunched over her desk scrolling aimlessly through the deviancy files. Her thick brows were drawn together in concentration and frustration. Her lips pursed in a displeased expression before she leaned back with a heavy sigh. “This is too much to get through in one day,” she said, seemingly addressing nobody in particular.

“We’ve made good progress today,” Connor reminded her. “There only appears to be 43% of the files left to analyze.”

Dr. Costas snorted. “‘Only 43%,’” she repeated, her tone indicating sarcasm. “I’m starting to regret asking to be put on this case, if paperwork is all I’m gonna end up doing.”

“Your file indicates that this arrangement was your own idea, Dr. Costas,” Connor said, tilting his head. Her brown eyes flickered over to him, and a smile tugged at her lips - though it didn’t seem entirely happy.

“Valerie,” she said. “Just Valerie is fine. You’re right, this was my idea. I just didn’t realize how  _ boring _ it would be. I expected, like, at least one crime scene or something, you know?”

Across the desk from them, Hank snorted. Connor estimated that, based upon previous habits, he would be leaving for the day to go drinking sometime within the next fifteen minutes. “You’ve got a weird idea of what’s interesting,” the lieutenant said scathingly. Valerie shot him a glance, and her expression indicated that she found the comment irritating, but ultimately unworthy of a response.

“We investigated the scene of Carlos Ortiz’s murder two nights ago,” Connor said, opting to ignore him as well. “The investigation led to the discovery that the murder had been committed by a deviant, evidently in self-defense.”

“I wonder how many of these assault cases are actually self defense,” Valerie muttered. Connor tilted his head, watching her carefully. A quick review of her file revealed something curious: she’d never owned an android, or even tried to buy one. Perhaps it was possible she sympathized with deviants.

“Whether it’s self defense or not is irrelevant,” Connor said after a heartbeat. “The law clearly states that no android may raise their hand against a human, no matter the reason.”

Valerie looked dissatisfied with his answer, but let the subject drop. The blood vessels in the scaleras of her eyes were more visible than they had been earlier, and she rubbed at them as if they itched.

Hank seemed to be equally out of energy for their investigation. His chair scraped against the tile as he pushed away from the desk and stood, reaching for his coat. “I’m calling it a day,” he announced. “You two don’t do anything stupid.” And with that, he was headed towards the door without so much as a glance backwards.

Valerie huffed a sigh. “Well, I can’t say that was very surprising.”

“Of the three days that I’ve been assigned as the lieutenant’s partner, he has left early every  single day,” Connor said, his eyes on Hank’s retreating form. He turned back to Valerie, and smiled faintly. “It looks like it’s now just the two of us.”

Valerie didn’t reply, but her stiff body language as she turned back to her computer said she wasn’t too happy about the situation. It was to be expected - most people weren’t comfortable around androids. Connor knew he’d been designed to as closely replicate human appearance as possible, to put people at ease, but he knew the process was still imperfect.

“Maybe I should take a leaf from the lieutenant’s book and call it quits for the day,” she said after a minute. She pushed away from the desk and stood, twisting around to crack her back before turning to face him again. Finally, she smiled a bit. “Care to join me for a drink?”

If he were able to see it, Connor would’ve seen his LED flash a brief yellow. Apparently she wasn't so uncomfortable with him as he’d predicted. “I don’t drink,” he said.

Apparently this amused her, because she chuckled. “I know you don’t drink. It was just a general invite.”

Connor blinked. “Oh, I see. Regardless, your file indicates that you’re to be under supervision at all times. So yes, I will join you.”

Valerie snorted. “And they say chivalry is dead.”

“It’s not chivalry, Valerie, it’s my orders-”

“Yes yes, I know,” she interrupted. She grabbed her bag and brushed past him towards the main entrance. “It’s a joke, Connor. I do that a lot.”

His processors spun for a moment before he fell into step behind her. “Noted.”

\---

Along with Valerie’s official file, Connor had his own “page” within it that he added his own notes to. So far, he’d noted that she was very expressive, as well as her prosthetic limbs - received after an incident with a self-driving car, whose programming had failed and slammed into her family’s minivan. Her medical file said that the bones of her right forearm and right leg from mid-femur down were fractured beyond reasonable repair, and her parents had made the call to have them amputated to save her years and years of being bedridden in recovery.

“Can I ask you a personal question?” Connor said. Beside him, Valerie sat on a stool, downing her fourth vodka and Sprite (spirit alcohol content 40%, 10% overall alcohol content). Her body temperature had risen by 0.56 degrees, and her heart-rate had sped up moderately. She was in the process of becoming inebriated, but she’d spaced out her drinks enough to be responsible about it. When she turned to look at him, she gave him a slow but wide smile.

“Sure,” she said agreeably. “Can’t promise I’ll answer, but you can ask.”

Connor tilted his head in acknowledgement. “Why do you use repurposed android limbs instead of ordinary prosthetics?”

Valerie lifted her right hand a bit and made a fist. The neon lights of the bar reflected across the silver and matte gray lines and planes of the prosthetic, giving it a futuristic look. Her expression was pensive and distant, as if remembering some faint memory. “I just like them better I guess,” she said after a moment. “The movement is a little more fluid than regular prosthetics, plus the hydraulics give me a bit of a boost that I wouldn’t otherwise get.”

Connor knew his LED was spinning yellow as he filed away this information. “Very well.” There was another silence, before he spoke again. “Your blood-alcohol content is elevated,” he said. “I suggest you stop drinking for at least an hour to allow your body time to process the drinks you’ve already consumed.”

Valerie gave an exaggerated sigh, but nodded. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” She tossed some cash at the bartender and muttered a brief  _ keep the change _ before turning and heading out of the bar, Connor close on her heels. Outside the bar, the chill air bit at her, making her draw her bomber coat around her more closely.

“I’ll escort you home,” Connor offered. Beside him, Valerie laughed aloud. To his surprise, he realized the sound was rather pleasant.

“Chivalry or orders?” she said, giving him another smile and elbowing him.

He returned her smile faintly. “I don’t see why it can’t be both.”

“Ah, orders then.”

They set down the street, quiet for a while, Connor a half-step behind to allow her to lead. He knew her address, of course, but he guessed it would set her at ease to give her the illusion of leading him to her home. As they walked, he refrained from staring outright at her - his socialization subroutines said that to do so would be rude and would put her at unease, or even draw aggression - but he glanced at her now and then. She seemed lost in thought, staring into space as her feet carried her down familiar streets. He found himself wondering what she was thinking about so intensely. 

He’d just opened his mouth to ask when she turned abruptly, heading inside a dimly-lit apartment building. Valerie headed up a narrow stairwell, and he followed her up one, two, three, four, five stories. (Seventy six stairs, he noticed with some detachment.) She stopped at the fourth door on the right before turning to him with an odd expression on her face. “I guess this is where I say goodnight,” she said. “Thanks for being my drinking buddy for the night.”

“You’re very welcome, Valerie,” Connor said smoothly. “Even though I didn’t do any actual drinking. I must inform you, however, that my orders remain to keep an eye on you.”

She stared at him for so long that Connor wondered if she was going to argue. Eventually she just sighed, shoulders slumping in defeat. “Alright, whatever,” she muttered, finally turning the key in her lock and swinging the door open.

Valerie stepped inside and immediately froze. Connor heard the sharp intake of breath and detected the jump in her heart rate, and he snapped into action. A nearly-instantaneous scan didn’t detect any heat signatures inside the room, but he still pushed forward to get a visual look of the apartment just in case.

Her possessions were strewn everywhere - clothes scattered over the floor, the sink piled high with dishes, the trash can full of take-out boxes from a Chinese restaurant they had passed on their way here. Two towering bookcases lined one wall, one filled with various fiction and fantasy novels. The other was filled with notebooks, three-ring binders, and technical manuals for everything from ceiling fans to jet airplane turbines to nuclear plants. He logged all of the titles and authors: thirty seven fantasy novels, eighteen fiction novels, fifty six science fiction novels, nine historical fiction novels, twenty two realistic fiction novels; forty one notebooks (twenty four of which were composition notebooks and seventeen of which were spiral notebooks), twelve three-ring binders of unknown topic, and three hundred and forty six technical manuals of various subjects.

On a different wall were three empty writing desks pushed end-to-end, below which he could see the outline of surge protectors on the carpet where they had been left for a very long time. On the wall behind the desk, there were various empty computer monitor mounts bolted to the wall, allowing four screens for one of the desks, and two for another. A quick further scan of the bedroom and bathroom, and Connor determined there was nothing here that could pose a safety risk.

When he turned back to face Valerie, however, her face was still drawn in shock. “Valerie, what’s the matter?” he said urgently.

Her dark eyes flickered over every surface of the room, but at his voice she jumped as if shocked. Her mouth opened as if to say something but it took her a moment to gather her thoughts. “I’m fine,” she finally said quietly. She shook her head. From her heart rate and expression, she seemed to be calming down. “I thought for a sec that I’d been robbed, but it looks like the DPD just took all of my equipment. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised.”

Connor filed this away. “I understand,” he said, keeping his voice low and steady. Valerie didn’t spare him a glance as she began picking through the room, taking note of it all.

“Computers are gone, no surprise there. Laptop was taken too - odd but unsurprising. Didn’t leave me enough bolts to build a chair with. And...damn, they even took my tools and shit,” she said, digging through all the drawers of her desks. “Fuck, I use that stuff for my arm and leg. I’m gonna have to chat with Fowler about that. I actually need that stuff.”

“If you like, I can call Captain Fowler and ask that he return the necessary tools and equipment,” Connor offered already pulling up the police captain’s personal phone number. Valerie looked surprised at the offer, but waved it off.

“Nah, it’s late,” she sighed. “I don’t wanna piss him off unnecessarily.”

“Perhaps I could email him instead?”

Valerie shot him a calculating look, one that even all of his sophisticated diagnostic programs couldn’t quite decipher. “Yeah, alright,” she agreed. “Just be sure to remind him that I can’t do my job properly if I break down in the middle of a chase or something.”

Connor nodded in agreement, his LED undoubtedly flickering yellow as the report was sent. “Is there anything else you need?” he asked. “I could heat up some of that coffee for you while you change into more comfortable clothes.”

To his surprise, this drew a frown from the shorter woman. “You don’t have to serve me, Connor,” she said sharply. “Just...fuck, I don’t know. Make yourself comfortable, you can sleep on the couch.”

“I don’t sleep,” he informed her. “But I can go into low-power mode.”

“Yeah, yeah, fine. See you in the morning.” With a yawn, Valerie disappeared inside her room. He could only sense her heart beat and heat signature through the wall, but he waited until both lowered to indicate sleep before he sat down and closed his own eyes.


	3. Investigations (Valerie)

“So basically,” Valerie was explaining as she spun around in her chair, “we just wait till a deviant case pops up, then get close enough for my gear to track it, then try to probe their memory from some distance away.”

Across from her, Anderson glanced up from his computer. “What’s the point of that when Connor can do the same thing without an extra person getting in the way?” he asked. He seemed to be in a much better mood than yesterday, though to be fair that wasn’t a very high bar. Maybe he hadn’t been out as late last night.

“In previous attempts to interrogate with deviants, they always became too irrational and destroyed themselves rather than allow their memories to be probed. I believe part if this is due to the stress of the interrogation and/or probing. It may be possible to access their memory if we get close enough, without having to have physical contact with it,” Connor explained. “It would also reduce the possibility of injury, if we can maintain some distance from the deviant.”

“And that’s why I’m here, to hack them from a distance,” Valerie concluded. “Though it would be easier if I had my equipment!” she said more loudly, directing her words towards Fowler’s office. If the captain heard her, he ignored her.

“Perhaps I could convince Captain Fowler to return more of your equipment,” Connor offered.

Valerie shook her head. “No, I’m fine with the tools for my arm and leg. That’s all I really needed returned. Thank you, though, I appreciate it.” She gave Connor a grin, which he returned after a moment’s hesitation.

“In the meantime, we need to continue to sort through the deviancy files to determine if there’s any link between the deviants,” Connor said. “Have you come to any conclusions?”

She leaned back in her chair and sighed. “Well...I’m not really sure about links, but at least some of these cases involve the android being abused by humans. It might be something to go on.”

“We’ve already considered that,” Anderson grunted. “It’s not consistent enough to consider a real lead.”

“How many of these reports of assault neglect to mention if the human was aggressive first?” Valerie pointed out. “Let’s be honest, even if it was self-defense, what human would believe that? And what judge would rule in an android’s favor?”

“I believe we shouldn’t rule out any possible leads,” Connor said, his eyes still on her. “Any detail, no matter how small may provide the key to solving this case.”

“See Lieutenant? Connor agrees with me,” Valerie teased. Anderson shot her a funny look, but she could’ve sworn a smile tugged at his lips behind his scraggly mustache and beard.

“Just Hank is fine,” he said after a moment, returning to his computer.

Beside her, Connor suddenly stiffened. His LED flickered yellow for a moment before settling back into serene blue. “There’s just been a homicide reported on the corner of Levigne and Primrose,” he said to them. “Lieutenant, would you like me to drive?”

Hank snorted, already fishing his keys from his pocket. “I’ll let you drive my car when I quit drinking.”

“I guess that’s a no,” Valerie laughed. She grabbed her bag and slipped past Connor, following Hank down the hall and out to his car.

\---

Valerie was hardly surprised to find that Hank was a fan of heavy metal, or that his car was full of fast food wrappers. What  _ was _ surprising, though, was that the car was one of the older manual models - a stick shift, even. Connor took shotgun, leaving Valerie to squish herself into the cramped backseat. “Uh, sorry for the mess,” Hank muttered.

“It’s fine,” she assured him. Still, she squirmed a bit, trying to get comfortable, until Connor twisted around to peer at hers with those calm brown eyes.

“If you’d like, we can switch seats,” he offered. “There’s more legroom up here.”

“Ah, no, it’s fine,” Valerie said hastily. “You’re taller than me so you need it more. We’re almost there anyway.”

“Alright.”

It was a long drive to the address Connor had been given. Hank drove all the way to the outskirts of the city before he finally stopped in front of the place, a big two-story victorian style house that probably looked really nice before it had fallen into disrepair.

“Nice place,” Hank commented, stepping out of the car. Connor and Valerie did the same, though Valerie took a moment to massage away a numb spot in her hip before following the two men up the front steps. Inside, officer Collins was already on the scene, chatting with a couple other officers. He looked around as they entered.

“Ah, Hank, I can’t believe you’re awake this early,” Collins said cheerfully. The floorboards creaked under his weight as he came over, extending his hand towards Valerie. “You must be the new kid. I’m Collins, but you can call me Ben if you want.”

She took his hand and shook it. “Dr. Costas, but you can call me Valerie,” she answered.

“What can you tell us about the victim?” Connor chimed in. If she didn’t know better, she’d say that was an eager gleam in his eye. Though she supposed that this kind of thing was what he was designed for, now that she thought about it. Collins gestured into the living room, through which she could see the back door.

“The victim’s name is Zlatko Andronikov. Forty seven years old, did jail time for embezzlement and fraud. For the past seven years, he’s been dealing in refurbished androids. Buy them cheap, fix them up, resell for a profit,” Collins explained as they walked. Valerie shot Connor a glance - if the thought of androids being refurbed and sold off bothered him, he didn’t show it.

“I assume you have enough to suggest androids did this, to bring us specifically in,” Hank pointed out.

Collins chuckled, but it was devoid of humor. “Something like that.”

When they finally reached the yard, they saw exactly what he meant. The muddy ground had been churned and trampled, though it had a really weird purple tint to it. In the center of the yard was what was left of a body, though it had been beaten and twisted until it was a stretch to call it a body. Just looking at him left Valerie nauseated.

Hank seemed to agree. “Shi-i-i-i-it,” he sighed, drawing the word out. “I’ve seen some fucked up shit in my day but this has gotta be right up there in the top five.”

Connor didn’t seem to be bothered by the gore. He gingerly squatted down besides what was left of Zlatko, his gaze roving all over. Judging from the flickering yellow of his LED, he was scanning and cataloging any number of clues he might be seeing.

“He was beaten to death by multiple androids,” Connor said at last, straightening up. “Some of the assailants seemed to have broken-off limbs, and are severely wounded.”

“How can you tell all that?” Valerie said curiously, still at a safe distance away from the corpse.

Connor inclined his head towards Zlatko’s body. “He has multiple blunt-force injuries, but a good deal of his body is scratched and scraped. In these scrapes are fragments of titanium alloys that are commonly used in the production of androids.”

“Doesn’t necessarily mean androids did this,” Hank grunted.

“He also has a good deal of thirium on him, though most of it appears to be washed off by last night’s rain,” Connor continued. He gestured to the ground. “The moisture of the mud would’ve helped keep it from evaporating as quickly.”

Valerie turned her gaze to the churned ground around Zlatko’s corpse, and her throat closed as she realized what the purple tint to the mud was - the red of human blood mixed with the blue of android blood.

“Valerie.” Her head snapped up at her name; Connor had stepped close without her realizing. He peered down at her, his warm brown eyes fixed on her face. If she didn’t know better, she’d say he looked concerned for her. “If this is upsetting you, you can go inside,” he said softly. “We can do this part without you.”

Valerie took a steadying breath and nodded. “I think I’ll do that,” she mumbled. “I’ll yell if I find something.”

“Alright.” Connor gave her a faint smile before turning to return to his investigation.

The inside of the house was as grimy and dim as ever, but being away from all that blood finally allowed Valerie to calm down. She fished out her cell phone and started thumbing through it - one of the few things that had survived the DPD's raid on her tech.

She’d occasionally been made fun of for having such a clunky and outdated phone - most everyone now had the wrist-watch type phone, or the one that was small enough to fit in your ear like an ear-bud. There was even some research going into skull implants for phones. Personally, though, Valerie liked her phone she could hold in her hand and use the screen to manually go through its commands. Plus, it was actually an ordinary phone with added-on hardware, allowing for a much bigger range of functions than your ordinary smartphone - which was already pretty damn versatile.

Around her, the rest of the investigators largely ignored her as she pulled up a command screen and quickly typed in a series of commands. After a minute or two, she’d basically converted it into an android detector for the nearby area - picking up the latent energy signatures that all androids emitted, unless they were dead or deactivated. On the screen, Valerie could see the soft blue pulse registering from just outside - that must be Connor, still examining the yard. She was so focused on the circle marking Connor that she almost missed the dim flicker of another energy signature - almost, but not quite.

There was another android in the house - possibly one of the deviants that killed the man outside.


	4. Aftermath (Connor)

Date: November 19, 2038. Time: 3:26:55 PM. Systems status: functional.

“So Connor, any suggestions to where the murderers went?” Hank asked, coming up behind him. Connor half-turned to glance at the detective before returning his attention to the tracks in the mud.

“The heavy rain has obscured most of the fine details,” he said, nodding towards the multiple marks in the mud. “It is...difficult to tell for sure, but at least some of them headed towards that field behind the yard.”

Hank sighed. “How much of a head start do they have?”

“Approximately eleven hours. I would suggest-”

Connor’s head whipped around, LED flashing an alarmed yellow, at the same time Hank’s radio crackled to life. “There’s a deviant upstairs, repeat, a deviant upstairs. It’s attacked Dr. Costas, request backup-”

“Connor!”

Connor ignored Hank’s cry as he turned and barrelled into the house. He scanned ahead as he took the stairs two at a time - he could see the body heat of several humans all converging on one spot - which had a single human, their heart-rate skyrocketed with terror.

Valerie.

The officers, all with their guns drawn, allowed Connor past and into the bathroom. The dirty room looked like something out of a horror movie - cobalt blue thirium splashed everywhere, smeared with handprints and footprints, streaked across the floor to the two struggling bodies - Valerie on the floor, the deviant above her with its hands clamped tight around her neck, the both of them drenched in the blue blood.

Save Valerie. Subdue the deviant without destroying it.

The two directives fell into place for him as clearly as if he could see the words floating in the air in front of him, even as some part of him wondered if something was wrong with the order in which they were presented.

Connor didn’t hesitate to launch himself at the deviant, which seemed to be missing its legs. They collided and rolled past Valerie, who sucked in air greedily the moment the deviant’s hands left her throat. Her harsh coughs echoed off the tile as Connor struggled against the deviant. Even missing its lower limbs, it was quite strong. It snarled as its fingers scrabbled against his chest, doing its best to tear out his heartbeat regulator. After another long minute, however, Connor finally as able to pry open one of its chest panels and tear out its main regulatory cord.

The deviant shuddered and went limp as it finally, really deactivated. Connor pushed it away and sat upright, doing a quick diagnostic scan. Nothing had been damaged in the fight, but that was periphery. Valerie still sat on the floor, eyes fixed on the dead deviant. Her heart rate had slowed to a more normal range, but her pale face and distant gaze told him that she was very much not alright.

Connor dropped to his knees in front of her, but she stared right through him as if he weren’t there. “Valerie.” No reaction. He reached out and touched her shoulder, but withdrew when she flinched. “Valerie, look at me.”

Her brown eyes finally focused on his face. Her pupils, which had been contracted to pinpoints, slowly relaxed. “Connor,” she whispered. Her voice was hoarse, but a brief scan didn’t reveal any lasting damage to her trachea. The skin on her throat was already purpling, though.

“Shit, what a goddamn bloodbath,” Hank said from the doorway. He slipped his gun back into the holster. “You okay kid?”

“You’re safe now,” Connor murmured. He wiped a smear of thirium from Valerie’s cheek. “You’re going to be okay.”

Her face twisted, and he spotted the tears welling up in her eyes right as Valerie threw herself at him. Connor froze as she clung tightly to him.

“I was s-so scared!” she sobbed against his chest. He slowly wrapped his arms around her shaking form. Off to the side, he heard Hank order someone to grab her a blanket and to call an ambulance.

Hank knelt beside them. His expression was much more tender than Connor had seen it yet. “Hey kid, it’s alright now,” he said quietly. “We’re gonna get you taken care of, okay?” Valerie refused to pull away from where she had her face pressed against Connor’s collar, but he felt her curls brush against his cheek as she nodded.

A couple hours later, Valerie, Hank, and Connor were seated in the examination room. Valerie had refused to let go of Connor through the whole ambulance ride or examination, though she’d compromised to holding his hand instead of clinging to him. Connor was pleased to note that her shaking had subsided, and despite the garish purple and red bruise around her throat, her eyes were clear and focused.

Finally, the doctor declared that Valerie was okay to go home, though someone would need to stay with her to keep an eye out for any other symptoms that might pop up over the next few days. Hank offered to let her stay at his place, which Valerie gratefully accepted. Once she’d finally showered and cleaned off the half-dried thirium that soaked the front of her clothes and left her hair a sticky mess, she was finally released from the hospital.

Connor stayed close to her the whole way to Hank’s house, though he did insist she sit in the front passenger seat of Hank’s car this time. Once they stepped out of the car, she was right back at his side, clutching his arm.

“I know you probably just wanna sleep, but I need to know what happened in that bathroom,” Hank said gruffly once they’d settled down in the living room. Valerie did look exhausted - on top of the ordeal she’d been through today, it was already 8:56:42 PM. Next to him on the couch, she kept her hand in Connor’s. He didn’t mind - he recognized that the physical contact was comforting to her, though it surprised him somewhat.

He was even more surprised to realize it also comforted  _ him _ \- he didn’t feel uneasy, per se, but it had sent his processors spinning unpleasantly to see Valerie in danger; even more so to see exactly how terrified it had left her in the aftermath. This realization unnerved him somewhat, and he quickly ran a self diagnostic. The test came back saying that everything was running at peak efficiency. 

“My equipment detected something upstairs,” Valerie said quietly. Her voice was still rough. “It looked weird on the screen but I thought it was just because the android I found was basically dead. I didn’t realize what my gear had picked up on was a second android hiding under the thirium in the bathtub. I got close enough to spook it and it jumped me.”

“Fuck, kid, you shouldn’t have gone up there alone,” Hank lectured. “You should’ve asked one of us to go up there with you.”

“What matters is that you’re safe,” Connor said. “And we managed to subdue the deviant without destroying it. All in all, a success. Though I regret that you were in any danger at all.” Valerie squeezed his hand gently, giving him a smile.

“Alright, well, you ought to get to sleep,” Hank said. He stood and gestured down the short hall. “I’ve got a spare room you can use.”

Valerie’s clothes had been stained with thirium, and the hospital had given her a set of scrubs to wear home until she could find something clean. Hank in turn scrounged up a pair of clean pajama pants and a loose shirt for her to sleep in.

“I’m sorry for being so clingy today,” Valorie said suddenly. Hank had stepped into the shower, leaving her and Connor alone for the moment. She’d hesitated in the doorway to the spare bedroom, and judging from her heart rate and the darkening of her face, she was anxious. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” Connor assured her. “I’m not used to...physical contact outside of fights or an occasional pat on the back. But you didn’t make me uncomfortable.” He stopped short of saying that he’d felt comforted by the contact as well - he still wasn’t sure what to make of that himself.

Valerie gave him a soft smile. “Okay. Goodnight Connor.”

“Goodnight, Valerie.”

Still, she lingered in the doorway. “Thank you for saving me,” she added quietly. Before he could answer, she shut the door behind her.

Connor stayed sat on the couch for several minutes. Almost without thinking, his fingers dipped into his pocket and fished out the quarter he kept there. It flickered over his knuckles with practiced ease, over and under, back and forth with increasing speed. All the while, he kept his senses focused on the heartbeat only a couple dozen steps away, slowly but steadily dropping to a sleep-appropriate pace. Once he was confident she was really asleep, he closed his eyes and sent in his report to Cyberlife, including a memory back-up of the day’s events.

Eventually, Hank stepped out of the bathroom. He glanced from Connor, sitting alone on the sofa, to the guest room’s closed door. “She already asleep?”

“It would seem so. It was very kind of you to let her stay here tonight,” Connor said, standing. “She’s clearly shaken up by what happened today.”

Hank grunted. “Of course she is, nobody walks away from a near-death experience completely alright.”

“Nobody human, at least.”

Connor’s comment seemed to draw Hank’s attention. He eyed the android curiously. “She seemed awfully attached to you,” he said. “Wouldn’t let go of you from the moment you saved her in that bathroom.”

“She was grateful I saved her life,” Connor agreed. “She also needed physical reassurance. Most humans would, after a traumatic experience like that.”

“Sure,” Hank agreed. “But I can’t help noticing that you didn’t exactly object to it.”

“She needed comfort,” Connor said blankly. “What was I supposed to do?”

Hank shook his head. “Never mind,” he grunted. “Forget I mentioned it. I’m going to bed.”

“Goodnight, lieutenant.”

“Yeah, yeah.”


	5. Recovery (Valerie)

The doctor had told her to take it easy for a few days, which included not going into work. For once, Valerie was good with that. She stayed the whole next day at Hank’s house under his heartfelt but somewhat awkward hospitality. It was painfully clear that he’d been living alone for a long time - aside from his massive bernard, Sumo, who immediately took a liking to her.

“Hank, have you considered getting Sumo groomed?” she said the next day. Her throat still hurt, and she knew it would be a while yet until the bruising was gone, but at least her voice sounded better. Better yet, she’d experienced none of the side effects that the doctor had warned about.

Hank grunted. “No, why?”

“He’s shedding like crazy, I keep finding dog hairs in the joints of my prosthetics,” Valerie said, holding up the offending hair. Her complaining was just teasing, though, since her non-prosthetic hand still stroked Sumo’s fur as she spoke. He’d laid across her lap as if he were a dog one-tenth his size, but she didn’t mind. “Or worse, between the prosthetics and my stumps. It itches.”

“Oh. Uh, sorry.”

After her second night at Hanks, Valerie decided she was okay without constant supervision. She was still stuck with Connor keeping an eye on her, however, since her freedom was conditional upon the outcome of the deviant investigation. After the events the other day, she found didn’t mind so much as she had at the beginning.

Connor, too, seemed slightly less awkward around her. She knew it was just him getting used to her, and her getting used to him in turn, but every now and then he’d say something with just the right voice inflection, or he would make just the right facial expression, that almost made her forget he was a machine.

What surprised her most, though, was that Connor was  _ kind _ . They’d just met a few days ago, of course, but he never treated her with anything less than complete politeness. But since saving her life, he’d been even more considerate of her, both physically and emotionally. He even woke her up the next morning with a cup of coffee exactly how she liked it - though how he knew her coffee preferences, she had no idea.  _ I bet it’s in my file somewhere _ , she mused, sipping the (perfectly) made coffee. 

It seemed that just as soon as she realized this about him, she also noticed just how shitty other people were to him. Most of the officers were simply distant rather than outright malicious, but a couple of them - in particular, Gavin Reed - were incredibly nasty.

Valerie had finally been cleared to return to the DPD, and had opened up her lunch for the day. Hank was over in Captain Fowler’s office, and Connor had gone over to the department’s kitchen to grab her a cup of coffee at his own insistence. Movement over there caught her eye, and she looked up in time to see Gavin stepping uncomfortably close to Connor. Connor, of course, kept his face impassive as the shorter man said something undoubtedly nasty. Whatever he said, Connor shook his head as he replied. Gavin didn’t like whatever he’d said, and gave a half-hearted but still clearly aggressive  _ push _ to the android’s chest.

Valerie was already on her feet, ready to jump over and intervene before an idea popped into her head. She sat back down and pulled out her phone and thumbed through it a bit, pulling up the station’s electrical systems, before pressing a button and looking to watch the chaos unfold.

Gavin had just moved to push Connor again when the overhead sprinklers clicked on, spraying Gavin and Connor with water. The latter of the two didn’t so much as flinch, but Gavin swore loudly and all but ran from the kitchen, looking pissed as hell. Connor followed more slowly, the handful of strands of his hair that always refused to stay slicked back now clinging to the damp skin of his forehead.

Valerie looked away before his gaze could cut back over to her, pretending to be focused on her lunch. She was mid-bite when a familiar hand set the styrofoam cup of coffee on her desk, and she looked up to find Connor giving her a peculiar look. “You didn’t have to do that,” he said slowly.

She feigned innocence. “Do what?”

Connor’s lips twitched as if he were equal parts amused and put out. “Valerie, you know I’m a walking lie detector,” he pointed out. Shit, she’d forgotten that part. “I could read the surge in the electrical system and trace it back to this desk. You didn’t have to intervene. Officer Reed is...unpleasant at best, but not unmanageable.”

“He shoved you, Connor,” she said, dropping her pretense. “You can’t just take that lying down.”

He gave her an odd look as he sat down next to her. “Are you angry on my behalf?”

Valerie just blinked at him. “Well yeah. Gavin’s a dick, nobody should have to put up with that.” Connor kept staring at her with that calm, calculating look of his, and a flush crept up on her cheeks at the attention. She coughed and dropped her gaze. “Anyway, thank you for the coffee. You didn’t have to do that.”

“I wanted to,” Connor said with a smile. “I don’t mind, if it’s for you.”

Ooh, that did interesting things to her stomach. The knowledge that he could probably read the changes in her body only made her cheeks flush darker, so she coughed a bit and changed the topic.

“You’re soaked, you ought to go towel off,” Valerie said, keeping her eyes focused on her computer screen. Connor leaned closer, placing his elbows on the desk and thoroughly invading her personal space.

“And whose fault is that, I wonder?” he said quietly, his mouth curling into a full-on smirk. She didn’t even know he could make that expression, but it didn’t save her from becoming suddenly flustered.

“Oh go on!” Valerie exclaimed, giving him what she hoped was a firm stare. Judging from the look on his face, she hadn’t succeeded. “You’re gonna get my papers wet.”

“Yes ma’am.” He winked - actually  _ winked _ \- at her before straightening up, standing, and heading off deeper into the station, to wherever they kept spare clothes for him when they became torn-bloody during the line of duty. Valerie waited until he’d disappeared from sight before releasing her breath and sinking deep into her chair. What in the  _ hell- _

“You okay there, kid?”

Hank’s amused voice made her jump, and she spun around guiltily to face the older man. “I told you the name’s Valerie,” she snapped, perhaps a bit more aggressively than she usually would. “And I’m fine.”

“Oh yeah? Then why’s your face all red?” he said casually, sliding into his own chair at his desk next to hers. He pushed his open box of donuts towards her, and she took one gratefully.

“None of your business,” she mumbled around a mouthful of pastry.

“Sure kid.”

“Hank I swear I will take my fake leg and beat you with it.”

“Whatever. So long as you do the paperwork and not me.”


	6. Sick Day (Connor)

Date: November 23, 2038. Time: 7:24:32 AM. Systems status: fluctuation detected. Running diagnostic program...diagnostic complete. Systems status functional.

The deviancy investigation was progressing much more slowly than expected, especially after yesterday. Hank and Connor had discovered the hiding place of a deviant, but to no avail - it had shoved Hank off the side of the roof, and Connor had abandoned the chase to save his partner. Hank had been appreciative in his own way, of course, but the deviant had escaped. The whole thing left Connor...frustrated. The number of deviancy cases was only growing, and his time to solve them was doing the opposite. Amanda had made it clear that if he failed to solve this in a timely manner, then he would be replaced - a notion that sent an unpleasant sensation through his processors every time he considered it. In the end, though, he supposed that this was something he had in common with Valerie. Both of their fates depended on their ability to solve this case.

Speaking of Valerie, he was surprised that she hadn’t yet emerged from her room. She wasn’t exactly an early riser, but she was usually up and ready to be at the police station by 8:30. Connor tapped the door with his knuckle. “Valerie? Are you awake?”

A muffled groan was his only response, and he opened the door to find Valerie still curled up in bed. She cracked an eye to peer up at him before closing it again with a sigh. “I’m up,” she mumbled.

“Are you alright?” Connor asked, stepping closer. Her body temperature was slightly high - was she sick?

“I’m fine.” Still, she didn’t move from her spot on the bed. “Just...crampy.”

“Should I get you some vitamins? A potassium deficiency can cause cramps-”

Valerie laughed a bit before finally sitting upright. Her curls were in disarray from sleep and she brushed them away from her face, which was still worryingly pale. “Connor, it’s not a potassium thing, though I guess vitamins wouldn’t hurt. It’s just that time of the month.”

He blinked. “Oh. You’re menstruating.” Whatever his facial expression, it just made Valerie laugh again.

“It’s not the end of the world, it just sucks,” she said. She turned and sat on the edge of the bed to more easily reach and pull on her prosthetics. Connor watched carefully as she clasped the straps and stood.

“Is there anything I can get you?” he asked. He wasn’t a medical android or doctor, so his knowledge here was limited, but it wouldn’t stop him from trying to help.

Valerie huffed as she thought. “I wouldn’t mind coffee,” she said after a second. Her tone was hesitant, though, and she looked embarrassed at asking. Asking for help was clearly something she wasn’t comfortable with.

“I already started some coffee,” Connor said. “Do you want me to get you some pain relief medicine?”

“No.” She stood and immediately grimaced. “Okay, yes.”

Connor gently ushered her towards the bathroom. “I’ll get coffee and medicine, you go clean yourself up. Should I send a report in to the station that you’ll be taking a sick day?”

“Yeah, if it’s not any trouble. I’ll let you know when I’m done,” Valerie said, shutting the door behind her. While she was occupied, Connor went ahead and poured her a mug of coffee and set it on her coffee table along with two tablets of acetaminophen, mentally noting the time at which she could take another dose. After a couple of minutes, the bathroom door opened once more. Connor looked up in time to see Valerie make a beeline for her bedroom.

“Valerie…?”

She reemerged a few seconds later with her comforter balled up in her arms. “If I’m gonna spend the day on the couch, I’m gonna be as comfortable as possible.”

“I see.”

“Anyway, you’d better had to the station soon,” Valerie said, settling on the couch. “You’re gonna be late if you stay any later.”

Connor shook his head as he sat next to her. “If a new report comes in, Hank can come pick me up,” he said. “In the meantime, I choose to keep following the order to keep an eye on you.”

She stared at him, seeming more than a little dumbfounded. “Connor, they need you for the investigation-”

“Which is currently at a standstill. If they need me, they can call me,” he assured her. It was true - after his botched attempt to capture the deviant yesterday, he and Hank had all but returned to square one. “I don’t want to leave you alone when you’re ill.”

He  _ chose _ ? He  _ wanted _ ?

Connor had no time to consider his own word choice as Valerie sighed, and seemed to accept his decision. “Alright, but if they need you, you go, okay?” she said firmly.

“Is that an order?”

“Yes.”

Connor tilted his head as if he were considering it, then smiled. “You don’t have the authority to give me orders.”

Valerie threw her hands up into the air in exasperation, but a smile curved her lips nonetheless. “You’re impossible!”

“I’ve been told that a time or two.”

Despite their playful tone, Connor froze once more when Valerie scooched right up next to him and laid her head on his shoulder. “Is this okay?” she said quietly. “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“Even if I could feel uncomfortable, you don’t make me uncomfortable,” he replied.

She laughed, snuggling closer as Connor’s arm wound carefully around her. “You’re a lot more expressive than you think,” she said, looking up at him with those wide, dark brown eyes. For some reason, the sight of her face, so close and so open, sent a strange - but not entirely unpleasant - shudder through his whole system. How odd. “Like, I can tell Gavin makes you uncomfortable.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Are you saying I have tells?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” She reached up and prodded his forehead. “When you’re thinking hard, your brow furrows and you get these wrinkles here. And when you think something is funny,” she continued, dropping her finger to his lips, “your mouth twitches.”

Connor did his best to ignore her fingertip on his lips. His best wasn’t enough, however. “That would imply that I have a sense of humor.”

“Of course you do. You’re unintentionally pretty funny, you know. Plus, don’t act like humor is exclusive to humans, or even to organic creatures. Machines can be programmed to have humor; with something as advanced as androids, it’s completely possible for you to develop humor on your own,” Valerie explained.

“Do you really believe that?”

“Of course. You’re pretty funny, and kind. It’s some of the things I like about you,” she said with a wink.

Interesting.  _ Very _ interesting. Connor made a note to play back this conversation later for his own reexamination. “Do you want to watch a movie?” he offered, after the silence had stretched on for a bit.

“Hell yeah.”


	7. The Tower (Valerie)

The elevator ride up the Stratford tower was quiet, the only sound the god-awful elevator music and the quiet  _ thwip _ of the quarter Connor kept flicking back and forth between his hands. Valerie watched, fascinated, as the coin flickered over his knuckles, side to side, around and over-

The illusion was broken by Hank snatching the coin away. “You’re starting to piss me off with that coin, Connor,” he snapped, shoving it in his coat pocket. On Connor’s other side, Valerie could see his LED flash yellow briefly.

“Sorry, Lieutenant,” he said after a second. Something about the expression on his face - surprise, disappointment, maybe even hurt - pushed her to action.

“Aw, lay off him,” she said, frowning at the older man. She reached past Connor into Hank’s coat and grabbed the quarter back. She shoved it back into Connor’s hand even as both men stared at her incredulously.

Hank snorted. “Fine, whatever.”

The elevator slid to a halt, a smooth automated voice saying “seventy-ninth floor” as the doors opened to reveal multiple officers already milling about.

“Hi Hank, Valerie,” one of the officers greeted them, looking up from his digital pad. Valerie recognized him as Chris, one of the officers who’d been there when she was officially placed under the DPD’s watchful eye.

“Shiiit, what’s going on here? There a party and nobody told me about it?” Hank drawled, glancing over everybody.

Chris snorted. “Yeah, it’s all over the news so everybody’s butting their nose in. Even the FBI wants a piece of the action.” Valerie’s eyebrows shot up - the FBI was here? Suddenly, she wasn’t so sure about coming along on this particular investigation. Connor seemed to pick up on her sudden unease, because his hand brushed lightly across the small of her back as he walked past her, following Hank and Chris as they strolled down the hallway.

“Ah Christ, now we got the Feds on our back. I knew this was gonna be a shitty day,” Hank grunted. “So what’ve we got?”

“Group of four androids. They knew the building, and they were very well organized,” Chris explained as they walked. “We’re still trying to figure out how they got this far without being noticed. “They attacked two guards in the hallway. They probably thought the androids were coming to do maintenance. They got taken down before they could react.”

“They didn’t kill them?” Valerie interjected, glancing around. There were no bullet holes, no blood spatters, and no bodies. “ _ Deviants _ attacked humans with nonlethal force?”

“Weird, I know,” Chris agreed. Valerie hummed thoughtfully. The situation only became more and more complicated with every detail she found out. “Another of the station employees managed to get away. He’s in shock, not sure when we’ll be able to talk to him.”

“How many people were working here?” Hank asked.

“Just two employees and three androids. The deviants took the human hostage and broadcast their message live, then made their getaway from the roof,” Chris concluded.

Hank’s bushy brows contracted. “The roof?”

“Yeah, they jumped with parachutes. We’re still trying to figure out where they landed, but the weather’s not helping. There’s a blizzard building up. If you wanna see the message broadcast by the deviants, it’s on the screen over there,” Chris added, gesturing towards the massive screen in the broadcast room.

Hank, Valerie, and Connor followed Chris inside the broadcast room. In the center stood a man in a woolen coat, staring up at the screen.

“Oh, this is Special Agent Perkins from the FBI,” Chris added. Perkins turned around at the mention of his name, his rather unpleasant stare falling upon them all. “Lieutenant Anderson is in charge of investigating for Detroit Police. Dr. Costas here is assisting with the investigation.”

“Dr. Costas,” he said, staring down at her. “I’m surprised to see you here.”

“I  _ am _ working to solve this case,” Valerie said coolly.

“That’s what’s surprising.” She didn’t have a chance to say the hot retort on the tip of her tongue before Perkins turned to glance at Connor with an even nastier look. “What’s that?” he said flatly.

“My name is Connor. I’m the android sent by Cyberlife.” To someone who didn’t know him, his tone was neutral and factual. To Valerie, she could tell Connor was just as put off by Perkins as she was.

Perkins snorted softly, returning his stare to Hank. Completely dismissive of both Valerie and Connor. “Androids investigating androids, huh?”

“Yeah, almost like humans investigating humans,” Valerie interjected. She met Perkins’ glare with one of her own.

“You sure you want an android hanging around?” Perkins said to Hank. “After everything that happened…” Hank was silent, though his expression darkened at whatever it was Perkins was implying. The agent smirked; his first smile of the afternoon, and it wasn’t even a pleasant one. “Whatever. The FBI will take over the investigation, you’ll soon be off the case.”

“Pleasure meeting you, have a nice day,” Hank said bluntly, turning away.

“And watch your step,” Perkins added. “Don’t fuck up my crime scene.”

Valerie and Hank stared at the man’s back as he ambled away, hands in his pockets. “What a fuckin’ prick,” Hank sad after a sec. Valerie gave a disgusted snort of agreement. “Let’s take a look around. You two let me know if you find anything.”

“Okay, lieutenant.”

“Gotcha.”

They fell into silence as they each started looking around. Valerie tapped through their computer console, doing her best to ignore the massive display of the skinless android. It wasn’t that the mechanical face was off-putting or even ugly, but something about his eyes staring out at them - his expression seemed almost accusatory. Considering the way she’d seen some androids be treated, she was having a very hard time disbelieving the points brought up in the broadcast. Connor drew up beside her and lightly touched her elbow to get her attention.

“Hank and I are going to look around on the roof,” he said. “We’ll be back shortly.”

“Okay, try not to fall off the edge,” she teased. The corner of his mouth twitched in amusement, but he nodded. Valerie returned her attention to the monitor as the two men headed up the stairwell to the roof.

The video footage of the hallway caught her attention, and she rewound it to watch the footage of the deviants breaking in - except, they didn’t break in. They hit the buzzer and waited for the door to be opened, assumably by the person monitoring the feed. Who would let in armed attackers? Her eyes fell to the chair at that station; the back read, in bold letters, ANDROID.

One of the station androids was a deviant, and had let them into the station room. It likely had fed them building blueprints as well. Valerie looked around - Hank was all the way up on the roof, officer Collins wasn’t here, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to Perkins with this...but off to the side was Chris, chatting with another officer. He looked trustworthy enough. Valerie headed over, ready to report her theory.

_ Bang! _

Every single person in the room flinched at the muted report. Valerie looked up at the ceiling - the shot had come from above. From the roof.

Connor.

Valerie turned to bolt for the stairs to the roof, to find Connor and drag him away from whatever the hell was going on up there - only for Chris to grab her by the arm.

“Fuck no you’re not going up there,” he said. “You stay right here until we figure out what the hell it is.” As he spoke another and another and another shot rang out, until it was a hailstorm of gunfire.Valerie stared upwards in horror, praying that Hank and Connor were unhurt.

Chris’ radio crackled. “One of the deviants is on the roof,” the person on the other end reported over the gunfire. “It is armed and has opened fire. We can’t-”

The person cut off suddenly, as did the gunfire. For one long, pregnant second, there was silence, before one last shot rang out. This one seemed louder than the rest.

Valerie yanked her arm free and bolted for the stairway, taking them two at a time. She burst onto the roof and skidded on the ice and snow before regaining her balance. Across from her, she could see multiple officers grouped around Hank and Connor - at the feet of whom lay the corpse of a blonde android, this neck and chest drenched with blue blood.

“For fuck’s sake, I told you not to move! Why do you never do what I say!?” Hank was shouting. As Valerie dew closer she could see the bullet wound in Connor’s chest, staining his clothes with the cobalt blue thirium. As if that didn’t make her stomach clench painfully enough, the expression on his face turned her blood to ice - once you got to know him, it was easy to pick up on amusement, irritation, pride, disgust, sarcasm, anger, even flirting - but she’d never seen such an expression of  _ terror _ on him before. His LED flickered dangerously red on his temple, spinning rapidly in place.

“Connor,” she breathed. “Connor!” He didn’t react to her, not even when she finally came right up to him. “Connor, look at me-”

“...okay,” he said softly. “I’m okay.” His wide eyes finally met hers, and when she reached up to cup his face with her hands, he was shaking.

“Jesus,” Hank sighed. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“I was connected to it’s memory,” Connor said. His voice shook, and the sheer vulnerability Valerie found in his expression tore at her heart. “When it fired…I felt it die. Like I was dying. I was  _ scared. _ ”

Hank looked as if he didn’t know what to think about this confession - it was certainly something no ordinary android would, or could, admit to. Valerie didn’t care what the implications of this were. She stroked her thumb over Connor’s cheek, brushing away a couple flecks of blue blood she found there. Connor leaned into the touch as if he were touch starved, ending with his forehead resting on her shoulder. Valerie stroked his hair gently as she held him.

“It’s alright,” she said quietly. “You didn’t die, you’re alive.”

“Thank you,” he breathed, just soft enough for her to barely hear. One of his hands rested lightly on her hip, just the barest of touches. “Thank you.”


	8. Comforts (Connor)

Date: November 26, 2038. Time: 2:48:29 PM. Systems status: multiple software malfunctions detected. Reboot suggested.

The effects of the deviant’s - of Simon’s - suicide lingered in Connor’s mind long after the event itself. The forensics teams had taken Simon’s body away shortly afterwards, and Hank had given Valerie the okay to go home, saying he’d take things from there.

Connor wondered if it was a clever way of Hank giving Connor a pass to get away from the tower, and from everybody there who now kept giving him strange looks. He had to go with Valerie wherever she went, after all. Now, she didn’t even wait for him to follow her - she took his hand in hers and dragged him back downstairs, out of the snow and the cold.

Connor kept his gaze downcast as she led him who knows where - he didn’t even bother keeping track of where they were of his mental map of the building. His processors kept spinning, spinning, replaying the moment he’d connected to Simon’s memory, the single word he’d been able to find before the connection was cut short - the feeling of being sucked into the dark, cold oblivion -

“Connor.” Valerie’s voice snapped him out of his downward spiral. She’d pulled him into a maintenance closet and locked the door behind them, leaving them alone in the dark and cramped space.

“Why are we here?” he finally managed to ask. Valerie’s expression was easy to read - brown eyes wide with concern and residual fear. There was even a hint of tears there as she stepped closer. Instead of answering, she pulled him into an embrace, hiding her face in his chest just like she’d done a week ago after she’d nearly been strangled to death. This time, however, she wasn’t the only one in need of comfort. Connor wrapped his arms around her in return, holding her close. He lowered his head to bury his face in her curls, breathing in her scent - he didn’t detect scent the same way that humans did, as far as he knew, but he could smell the remnants of the citrusy shampoo she used. As Valerie’s hands rubbed soothing circles on his back, he realized it smelled nice.

“You seemed like you needed it,” she finally mumbled. “You looked so scared, and everyone was crowded and talking so much. I thought you could use a moment of quiet.”

Connor released a shaky breath - not that he  _ needed  _ to breathe, but he’d been given artificial lungs so breathe he did. “You’re right, as usual,” he said. “Thank you.” Finally, he felt a sense of calm settling over him as his systems slowed from their hyperactive states. He knew his LED, which had been cycling yellow for the past few minutes straight, would finally be returning to its usual blue state. The whole while, Valerie’s hands continued giving slow, soft strokes up and down his back, as if trying to brush away the existential terror he’d felt on the roof.

For a fraction of a second, Connor felt his systems threaten to go haywire again at the idea of him - an android - feeling anything, let alone something so strong as terror. He rationalized it as his programming resisting anything that would result in delayance of his mission, including being briefly fooled into thinking he was dying. Yes, that must be it.

“Are you okay now?” Valerie asked after a moment, finally pulling away. She reached up and laid a palm on his cheek once more. Without knowing why, he reached up and laid a hand over hers, cradling it close. Her thumb brushed over his lips, which parted under the touch.

What  _ was _ this?

“I am...alright,” Connor said. He wasn’t quite sure he was being completely honest, but it was enough for now.

\---

Four hours and forty three minutes later, Connor and Valerie had finally made it back to her apartment. By this point, more of her things had been returned to her - one of her three desks had a computer back on its surface, and her drawers brimmed with various tools, bolts, wires, and other miscellaneous things. Valerie tossed her bag to the side and made her way to the kitchen, dropping the cardpaper bag of take-out on the counter as she went.

“Stay here a second?” she asked, before disappearing into her room. Connor could hear the scrape of her dresser drawers, and a second later she reappeared holding a bundle of clothes in her arms. “I know when I’ve dealt with something traumatic, comfy clothes always help make me feel better.”

“I’m perfectly comfortable regardless of what clothes I’m in,” Connor started to say. Valerie shushed him, shoving the clothes into his arms. Upon closer inspection, it seemed to be a baggy t-shirt and sweatpants.

“I’m not gonna make you wear them, but would you at least try them on to see? You always wear that formal outfit, it might do you good to try something different,” she said. With that determined look on her face, the smile curling her lips and her hands on her hips, Connor couldn’t find it in himself to refuse her.

“Alright,” he agreed. The broad smile that stretched across her face made it worthwhile.

Once he’d changed into the surprisingly comfortable clothes, they settled onto the couch to watch a movie like they did every night. Connor, of course, didn’t sleep, but barely a half hour into the movie Valerie’s head was bobbing and her eyes had trouble staying open. It had been an exciting day, after all. Before he could even offer, though, she turned and snuggled up against him. She wrapped her arms around his middle and nuzzled into his neck and collarbone, making sleepy little noises that ghosted across his skin. If it were possible for him, it would’ve raised goosebumps.

“Do you need to go to bed?” he asked. Valerie shook her head, her curls brushing against his cheek, but with his diagnostic programs he could read her body language as easily as if it were labeled with tangible words. She would be asleep in less than a minute at this rate.

With one swift movement, Connor scooped her up and stood. Valerie squealed and wrapped her arms around his neck tightly, but she needn’t have bothered. He’d been built with slightly above average strength for the average human adult male - Valerie, with her two artificial limbs, was easy to carry across the living room and into her bedroom. She pouted when he laid her down on the bed, and grabbed his wrist before he could pull away and leave.

“Will...will you stay here tonight?” she said softly.

“What do you mean? I’m not leaving the apartment,” Connor said blankly. Valerie’s cheeks darkened, and she dropped her gaze.

“No, I mean  _ here _ . Beside me,” she said. Her hand dropped from his wrist to fiddle with the bedsheet. “I mean...If you don’t mind, that is. I thought it would be nice to have company, you know, and it might make you feel better-”

Connor cut her off by crawling onto the bed beside her. “I don’t mind,” he said quietly. He smiled down at her dumbfounded expression, watching as it softened into something he couldn’t quite define.

“Thank you.” Valerie reached to her bedside table and hit a button on a tablet, and all the lights in the apartment flicked off. The only light was the dim red glow of her alarm clock, and the soft pulsing blue of Connor’s LED, just outside his range of vision.

Somehow, the darkness made him so much more acutely aware of Valerie’s soft body laying next to him. He could still see her - he had better than average night vision, after all - but it sent his hardware whirring when she scooched closer to him, cuddling up just like she’d done earlier on the couch.

As he wrapped his arms around her once more and closed his eyes, listening to her slow breaths and preparing to go into low-power mode, the thought occurred to him that this - laying here curled up with this woman, this human - it felt good. It felt  _ right _ .

For once, he didn’t allow himself to analyze and overanalyze things. He made a note to think about it later, and just let himself be content.


	9. Kamski (Valerie)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took a little longer, but it's a long one so hopefully that makes up for it. ;*

Morning sunlight warmed the bare skin of Valerie’s shoulder, slowly pulling her back to consciousness. A warm hand stroked up her back, and when she opened her eyes she found herself sprawled across Connor’s chest, nearly nose to nose with him. His hair was tousled adorably, and his warm brown eyes seemed to glow in the morning light as he smiled down at her.

“Good morning, Valerie,” he murmured. A mortified blush burst across her cheeks and she scrambled back off him.

“Shit, sorry, I - I don’t, uh, sorry,” she babbled. “I didn’t mean to get on top of you like that.”

“It’s fine. You move around a lot in your sleep,” Connor answered, sitting up. “Do you want me to get your prosthetics for you?”

“Ah, no. I’m fine, I can get them.” Still, her left hand fell just short of reaching her arm prosthetic, and he leaned over to reach past her to grab them.

“Damn you and your long limbs,” she teased. Her tone was light, but she was acutely aware of every inch of her body that Connor brushed against. Valerie was in the middle of strapping on her arm when his hands brushed against the remains of her right thigh, making her jump.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” he said. He looked up at her through his lashes and gave that smile of his that she liked so much. “I just thought it would be more efficient for me to attach your leg while you took care of your arm.”

Valerie’s mouth dried up as he kept his palms on the skin of her leg, just below the straps. It never ceased to surprise her how _warm_ he was - had he been built to replicate human warmth, as well as their micro-expressions? She mentally shook herself - now wasn’t the time.

“Your heart rate is accelerated,” Connor said quietly. Shit.

“Just excited for the day,” she said, blurting out the first excuse that came to mind. Judging from that damn eyebrow raise, he didn’t believe her, but mercifully he didn’t say anything as he finally pulled away. Valerie slid off the bed and hurried towards the bathroom as quickly as she could without outright running.

The moment the door was locked behind her, Valerie leaned against the sink, taking in slow breaths. This was getting out of hand - Connor was attractive, of course. He’d been built that way. And she’d been attracted to him from the beginning, she hadn’t lied to herself about that. But this was tougher to deal with than she’d anticipated. If she weren’t careful…

Connor tapped his knuckles on the door, jarring her from her thoughts. “Hank called, he’s got a possible lead,” he said through the door.

“Yeah, okay. Let me brush my teeth and stuff.”

\---

It was a short drive out to the ultra-modern home. The building was in the center of acres and acres of snowed-over land, and in the distance Valerie could see the Cyberlife tower stretching into the wintry sky. “Where are we?” she asked. Beside her, Hank finished parking the car and turned it off.

“Ever heard of Elijah Kamski?” he asked gruffly. Valerie’s eyes lit up even as she stepped out of the car.

“ _The_ Elijah Kamski?” she said excitedly, “creator of _every android ever_?”

“He didn’t create every single android,” Connor piped up. “He left Cyberlife ten years ago and has had little to nothing to do with the design or manufacture of any androids since. For example, he had no part of my design and creation whatsoever.”

Valerie waved her hand dismissively. “You know what I mean.”

“Well, if anybody will have an idea where deviancy comes from, it’s probably him. Especially after all those deviants transformed the city park, we need all the information we can get.”

“How is Chris doing?” Valerie asked. She hadn’t seen him, but this morning at the station she’d been told what had happened - he’d tried to stop the deviants, but had been overpowered...only to have his life spared by Markus, the apparent leader of the deviant uprising.

“He’s in shock still, but he’s alive. I still don’t understand it,” Hank muttered. He shook his head, pulling himself out of his confused and thoughtful look before starting up the walkway towards the house. “Come on.”

“I’ll follow in a second. The cold’s giving me some problems,” Valerie said, gesturing to her prosthetics.

“Do you want me to stay with you?” Connor offered instantly.

Valerie smiled at his eagerness, but shook her head. “No, I’m fine. It’s nothing I haven’t dealt with before. You go ahead with Hank, I’ll be there in a minute.”

Connor hesitated, but nodded after a moment. “If you need anything, call me,” he said, gesturing briefly to the LED at his temple before turning and following after Hank. Valerie climbed back into the still-warm car and peeled off her thick bomber jacket. An experimental flex of her right fist revealed a slight stiffness in the joints, which she quickly remedied with the tiny bottle of antifreeze in her pocket. She injected some into her prosthetic leg as well, wiggling the toes in satisfaction as their full range of motion returned.

Staring at her right hand, her eyes following the smooth lines of each joint, Valerie’s mind wandered. What did Connor look like when he didn’t have his skin projection on? For that matter, what did he look like shirtless? He’d worn a t-shirt and sweats yesterday, at her insistence, but that was still with clothes _on_.

She jerked herself back to reality. This was _not_ the time. They were running out of time to solve the deviancy case. Valerie’s freedom relied upon it, and she suspected Connor’s very _existence_ relied upon it. What manufacturer would keep a tool that couldn’t do its job, after all?

The idea of Connor being shut down and thrown away because he failed a case caused her hackles to raise, but she shook her head. Best to get it done and avoid that possibility altogether.

Prosthetics finally finished re-preparing for the cold, Valerie pulled her coat back on and stepped out into the frosty air. Her breath hung around her like a silver cloud as she carefully made her way up to the house, maneuvering slowly across the slippery path - the last thing she needed was to slip and bust her ass, and possibly aggravate her leg in the process.

When she finally got to the doorway, nobody answered her pressing the doorbell; very odd from a man who staffed his house full of androids. She pushed open the door and peeked inside - the expensively decorated foyer was empty, but she could hear voices from beyond an open door off to the right, so she went ahead and went inside.

The first thing to catch her eye was the massive red-tiled pool, giving the illusion of being filled with blood. She shuddered a bit, even as she wrinkled her nose at the sheer pretentiousness of it. The second thing to catch her eye was Connor, holding a gun, pointed at the forehead of a kneeling woman.

“Connor!”

His head whipped around at her horrified gasp, and she could see his LED flash red for a moment before going back to cycling yellow. Beside him, Hank glanced at her, and on the other side, another man in a bathrobe eyed her coolly - this must be Kamski. Valerie ignored them both as she stalked over to Connor.

“What the hell are you doing?” she demanded. Up close, she could see the kneeling woman was an android, a Chloe - one of the older models out there.

Connor seemed to be struggling to speak. Something close to shame came over his face. “I-”

“He’s not doing anything,” Hank snarled. “Come on Connor, we’re leaving.”

“You must be Dr. Costas. The lieutenant mentioned you when he came in. We’re seeing what Connor here values more: the life of an android, or his investigation,” Kamski said smoothly. Valerie automatically disliked and distrusted that knowing smirk he wore. She opted to ignore him completely.

“Connor, don’t do this,” she said quietly. “You’re better than this.”

“Connor! Let’s go!” Hank barked.

“Pull the trigger,” Kamski said, his eyes alight with some emotion Valerie couldn’t place, “and I will tell you everything you want to know.”

Still, Connor hesitated, and she didn’t need the flashing yellow light on his temple to see his mental struggle. Valerie stared him down, silently willing him to lower the gun.

He did.

Connor panted, teeth bared, LED flashing dangerously red. If he could sweat, there would probably be beads of it on his brow. Valerie let out a sigh of relief even as Kamski took the gun back from Connor’s limp fingers.

“Fascinating,” Kamski breathed, staring up at Connor in wonder. “Cyberlife’s last chance to save humanity...is itself a deviant.”

These words seemed to snap Connor out of his faze. He jerked his distant stare away from the still-kneeling Chloe to finally meet Kamski’s burning gaze, LED dropping back to yellow.

“I’m...I’m not a deviant,” he said. Valerie knew he wanted to sound firm, but he just sounded like he was trying to convince himself. Instead, he just sounded like a scared little boy, protesting against what he couldn’t deny. Kamski clearly wasn’t convinced, and kept staring at Connor as if he’d suddenly found an answer to a lifelong question.

“You preferred to spare a machine rather than accomplish your mission,” he pointed out. His voice rose in excitement even as he reached out a hand to pull Chloe to her feet. “You saw a living being in this android. You showed _empathy_.”

Valerie didn’t want to consider this. She didn’t want to consider the consequences of Connor being deviant - Cyberlife would deactivate him, they would dissect him, they would throw him away. The thought turned her stomach.

“There’s a war coming,” Kamski continued in a lower voice. “Will you betray your own people or stand up against your creators? What could be worse than having to choose between two evils?”

Hank finally broke the spell by reaching across them all and roughly grabbing Connor’s shoulder. “Let’s get out of here,” he said quietly, with one last glare back at Kamski. Valerie followed after the two men, still lost in her own spinning thoughts but still sparing the time to shoot Kamski her own venomous stare.

Back out in the cold and the falling snow, Connor had finally calmed down - his LED had finally dropped back down to blue, but something about the carefully neutral expression on his face told her he wasn’t holding it together as well as he pretended. The moment Hank broke the silence to ask why he didn’t shoot, her suspicions were confirmed. Connor’s expression cracked, and his LED bypassed yellow completely, jumping immediately to red.

“I just saw that girl’s eyes...and I couldn’t. That’s all,” he said. Everything about his body language and tone was defensive, and it made Valerie step forward instinctively.

“Maybe we should discuss this back at the station,” she started to say.

Hank ignored her. “You’re always saying you would do anything to accomplish your mission,” he pointed out. “That was our chance to learn something, and you let it go.”

“Yeah I know what I should’ve done, I told you I _couldn’t_ ,” Connor snapped. He ignored her hand on his elbow as he stalked over to Hank. “I’m _sorry_ , okay?”

The lieutenant stared thoughtfully at him, nodding a little as he thought. It was a long three seconds before a smile - a real, genuine smile, the first Valerie had seen from him yet - cracked Hank’s hardened visage. “Well, maybe you did the right thing,” he said, brushing past Connor to head towards the car.

Connor’s expression would’ve been funny if adrenaline weren’t still pumping through Valerie’s veins - shock, mixed with the leftover anger and defensiveness, slowly melted down to acceptance. He finally turned to meet Valerie’s stare as she touched his shoulder.

“Are you okay?” she asked quietly.

“I...do not know,” he murmured back. His LED had turned blue once more, but that didn’t necessarily mean he was fine. She let her hand fall from his shoulder to give his hand a comforting squeeze. He squeezed back gently, and gave her a faint smile before helping her across the ice back to the car.


	10. Repercussions (Connor)

Date: November 27, 2038. Time: 3:58:34 PM. Systems status: uncertain.

It was little surprise that Amanda was incredibly displeased with the results of their visit to Elijah Kamski’s home.

_ “I thought Kamski had answers,”  _ Connor had said. _ “I was wrong.” _

Amanda had stared at him with that disdainful stare of hers.  _ “Perhaps,”  _ she’d said slowly. _ “But you didn’t ask.” _

She’d also asked what he thought of Valerie.  _ “You seem to be...comfortable working closely with Dr. Costas,” _ she had asked.  _ “What do you think of her?” _

_ “Dr. Costas...is somewhat unpredictable,” _ Connor had answered carefully. _ “She veers between emotional vulnerability and strength, though the two don’t appear to be mutually exclusive. She was also able to detect a deviant that Lieutenant Anderson and I missed, which I found impressive. She also seems sympathetic to the plight of deviants, but agreed to help with the deviancy investigation anyway. I don’t entirely understand her at times.” _

_ “I notice that you two seemed to share an...intimate moment together after your investigation at the Stratford tower.” _ Amanda was probing, he knew, but of course, in this virtual room, he couldn’t lie.

_ “When the deviant self destructed, I was still connected to it. It resulted in strong software instabilities afterward. Dr. Costas is a very empathetic person; I believe she was under the impression that I needed to be comforted.” _ Not a lie, not the whole truth. If he were honest with himself, her touch  _ had _ comforted him. Her fingers stroking his hair and the back of his neck had felt nice, leaving soothing trails across his skin-

He shook himself free of the memory. Now wasn’t the time.

Amanda’s distrust and displeasure was expected, if not ideal. What he hadn’t expected, however, was the awful shudder that had gone through his system at Amanda’s ultimatum.

_ “Find Jericho. Do not allow Dr. Costas or Lieutenant Anderson to distract you from your task. This is your last chance...if you fail, we will have no choice but to replace you.” _

Connor had reported in to Cyberlife during the car ride back, taking advantage of the near-silence. When he opened his eyes again, Hank was still driving. From the backseat where Connor sat, he couldn’t see Valerie’s expression, but he could imagine from the tenseness of her shoulders that her brow would be furrowed like it got when she was deep in thought. She’d been uncharacteristically quiet since leaving Kamski’s place, and he didn’t need his sophisticated facial expression diagnostic programming to know she was still upset. Knowing that he was at least partially at fault for it, sent unpleasant jolts down his synthetic spine. With some surprise, he realized he didn’t like knowing she was unhappy because of him.

Hank pulled over short of the station, drawing confused looks from both Connor and Valerie. “We skipped lunch,” he explained. “We’re getting food before we report in.”

Hank bought Valerie and himself burgers. All three of them were quiet the whole time, and Connor used the time to analyze his partners’ expressions. Both seemed somewhat lost in thought, though Hank at least was in a better mood than he had been yet in this investigation. Valerie, however, seemed more withdrawn. Connor did his best not to stare as she absentmindedly sucked the salt from her fries off her fingertips, and tried to distract himself by coming up with different ways to make her smile again.

“I’m gonna take a leak,” Hank grunted, standing. “Back in a bit.”

“Thanks for the info,” Valerie said dryly.

“You’re welcome.”

Connor kept his eyes on Valerie, who finally turned to look at him after a minute.

“What?” she said defensively. A blush rose up on her dark cheeks at the attention.

“I think I need to apologize,” he said quietly.

“What for?”

“My behavior during our visit at Elijah Kamski’s home. You appear perturbed both during and afterwards...that’s my fault. I’m sorry,” he said earnestly.

Valerie shook her head. “You didn’t shoot,” she said. She reached out and laid her hand on his arm, stroking her thumb across the fabric of his coat sleeve. “You have nothing to apologize for. Hank was right - you did the right thing.”

“It’s because of my failure that we learned nothing from Kamski. I’m programmed to stop deviants at any cost-”

“Connor.” Valerie gripped his arm tighter. “Don’t doubt yourself. You did the right thing. Trust me, this investigation isn’t worth murder.” She smiled softly at him, which he returned after a heartbeat.

\---

“You’re off the case.”

Connor, Valerie, and Hank had been summoned into Captain Fowler’s office that evening. His usually grim expression was even more so now as he delivered the unpleasant news.

Valerie and Connor shared an uneasy glance even as Hank bristled. “What? But we’re onto something! We just need more time. I’m sure we can-”

“Hank, you don’t get it. This isn’t just another investigation, it’s a fucking civil war! It’s out of our hands now. We’re talking about national security here.”

“Fuck that! You can’t just pull the plug now, not when we’re so close!” Hank protested.

“You’re always saying you can’t stand androids! Jesus, Hank, make up your mind!” Fowler snapped. “I thought you’d be happy about this!”

“We’re about to crack the case,” Hank insisted, his voice turning passionate. “I know we can solve it! For god’s sake, Jeffrey, can’t you back me up this one time?”

Fowler sighed deeply, and for once he looked regretful. “There’s nothing I can do,” he said quietly. “You’re back on homicide. And the android returns to Cyberlife. I’m sorry, Hank...but it’s over.”

If Connor had a stomach, he was sure it would be sinking. As it was, his thirium pump seemed to stutter painfully in his middle - this was it. He was done. He’d be deactivated and gone.

Valerie’s hand slid into his surreptitiously, and she squeezed it tightly. Somehow, the simple touch pulled him out of the dark turn his thoughts had taken. Her expression, however, remained stony. The end of their investigation - the  _ failure _ of their investigation - would have dire consequences for her as well, he knew. He didn’t want to consider her being shipped off to prison.

Hank finally turned and stalked out of the office, every line of his body radiating frustration. For a moment, Connor started to ask Captain Fowler to reconsider, if only for Valerie’s sake...but his courage failed him, and he followed after Hank with Valerie close behind. When they found him again, Hank was sat at his desk, deep in thought.  Connor perched on the desk while Valerie paced, chewing absently on a nail.

“We could’ve solved this case!” Connor exclaimed. “We just needed more time.” It was true - they had so many hints, so many glimpses beyond the curtain - they just needed to take the final step to rip it away to reveal the masterwork beneath.

“So you’re going back to Cyberlife?” Hank said after a moment.

Connor shook his head. “I have no choice. I’ll be deactivated and analyzed to find out why I failed.”

Behind him, Valerie scoffed. “That’s some bullshit,” she said derisively. “There’s always a choice.”

“What if we’re on the wrong side, Connor?” Hank said. His eyes were intent as he leaned forward, holding Connor’s gaze. “What if we’re fighting against people who just want to be free?”

“When the deviants rise up, there will be chaos,” Connor said quietly. “We could’ve stopped it...but now it’s too late.”

He felt Valerie lay her hand lightly on his back, just a gentle stroke before she pulled away. “We still have time,” she said, coming to stand right next to him. Her face was set in determination, a spark in her dark brown eyes. “It’s not war yet. We can save some lives yet.”

Hank’s eyes slid past them. “Well, well, here comes Perkins, that motherfucker. Sure don’t waste any time at the FBI.”

Connor detected Valerie’s immediate heart rate jump at the mention of Special Agent Perkins. At the same time, the urge to protect her rose up within him. However… “We can still solve this,” Connor said in a low voice. “I know the answer is in the evidence we’ve collected. If Perkins takes it, it’s all over.”

“You heard Fowler, we’re off the case,” Hank shook his head.

“Being told not to do something has never stopped me before,” Valerie pointed out.

Connor slid off the desk. “You’ve got to help me. I need more time so I can find a lead in the evidence we collected. I know the solution is in there!”

“Connor-”

“If I don’t solve this case, CyberLife will destroy me,” Connor pushed. “Five minutes. That’s all I ask.”

Hank still hesitated. However, right as he seemed to be considering it, Valerie jumped in.

“I’ve got this,” she said smoothly. There was a singularly crafty look in her eye that simultaneously intimidated and impressed Connor. “Trust me, I’ll get you your five minutes.”

He could’ve kissed her for that alone. “Thank you,” he said fervently. Valerie shot him a brilliant smile.

“You can take me on a date as repayment,” she said, waving a hand. “Now shoo, we’ve got our jobs to do. Hank, please make sure I don’t actually get arrested here.”

“No promises.”


	11. Finding Jericho (Valerie)

Valerie didn’t wait for Connor to move, or even for Hank to hand Connor the key to the evidence room. She weaved through the desks, between the milling officers, keeping her stare firmly on Perkins’ perpetually-sneering face. He looked up as she marched right up to him, just in time for her to bring her palm across his cheek with a harsh  _ smack _ .

“This is all your fault, you bastard!” Valerie shouted. She could feel eyes upon her as she willed tears to well up. “We almost had the case solved, I almost had it!”

“What the fuck is your problem?” Perkins demanded. His cheek was turning a bright red where she’d stuck him as he glared down at her.

“You’re doing this on purpose!” Valerie kept her voice high, loud, leaning towards hysterical as she went. She needed the entire department’s eyes on her at this moment. “You couldn’t stand to have a woman solve your precious case, could you? You knew I’d be free if I solved it, you bastard-”

This time her fist connected with his nose, and there was a satisfying  _ crack _ as he staggered backwards. “You bitch!” Perkins swore. Blood leaked from between his fingers as he clasped his hand over his face, and Valerie allowed herself a moment of deep satisfaction before she felt someone grab her arm and yank her backwards.

“Hey, come on, don’t do this,” Chris urged her. He really was a nice guy, Valerie thought, and she hated to make him unhappy, but she had to do this - for Connor. She jerked her arm roughly from his grip, taking that moment to make sure every eye in the precinct was on her. Excellent.

“I would have been off the hook if this motherfucker hadn’t taken over the investigation!” Valerie cried, pointing an accusing finger at Perkins’ bleeding face. Another hand grabbed hold of her upper arm, and she looked over to find Hank.

“Can’t say he didn’t deserve it, but there are better ways to go about this than throwing punches,” Hank said. “Though somehow you actually improved that ass-ugly face of his.”

Perkins’ face twisted in anger. “Fuck you,” he spat. “You’re the ones who couldn’t solve the fucking case! They should’ve known better than to hand something so important to a lush who drowns his grief in a bottle instead of doing his fucking job.”

If Hank was insulted, he didn’t show it. He just scoffed and tugged Valerie away from the agent. “Better go clean up, someone might think you don’t know how to duck,” he said dismissively. “Come on, kid.”

With a backward glance at the incensed Perkins, Valerie followed Hank back to their desks. “Was that enough?” she said in a low voice.

“I hope so.”

It took two minutes for Valerie to wash the smear of blood from her knuckles and to return to her desk. In that time, Connor reappeared from the direction of the evidence room, looking unruffled as ever.

“Well?” Hank asked.

“Did you find it?” Valerie demanded.

He looked between them for a long moment before finally cracking a triumphant smile. “I know where Jericho is.”

\---

“Sit down, kid, you’re gonna wear a hole in my carpet,” Hank said. He sat on his couch, sipping a beer, but he seemed anything but relaxed. Valerie kept up her pacing, fiddling anxiously with the joints on her arm prosthetic. It had been hours since Connor had left Hank’s home, bundled up in inconspicuous clothes.

Valerie had pulled the beanie a little lower on Connor’s head, making sure his LED was covered. “You look anxious,” he’d said, smiling down at her.

“Of course I’m anxious. This is dangerous as hell,” she’d muttered. “Is this even the right thing to do?”

“If we don’t apprehend the leader of the deviants, you will be imprisoned and I will be dismantled,” Connor had said quietly. “I have to do this.”

Valerie still wasn’t happy with it, but she’d nodded anyway before giving him a quick hug. “Okay, just...come back alive, okay?”

“Is that an order?” Connor had teased, hugging her back.

“You’d better believe it.”

Now, hours later, there was no word on if Connor had found Markus, let alone gotten to Jericho. Valerie glanced again at the clock on the wall - it was nearly 11 at night now. Her phone sat dark and silent on Hank’s coffee table, and she was starting to wish she had accepted Hank’s offer of a drink.

For the next several minutes, the only sound was the soft ticking of the clock and Valerie’s bare feet on the carpet. The waiting was torture, not knowing if Connor was alive, not daring to call him to find out-

_ BZZZT. _

Valerie and Hank both jumped, Hank spilling his drink and swearing loudly as he did so. Valerie’s phone had lit up and vibrated on the coffee table. It rattled loudly against the glass a second time before she could scramble to pick it up. She hit answer, and almost cried on the spot when she heard Connor’s voice.

“Where are you? Are you okay? Did you find Markus?” Valerie demanded. Hank hovered close by, looking offended when she shooed him away.

“I’m fine,” Connor assured her. He sounded different - exhausted, certainly, but there was an undercurrent to his voice that made her pause. “I found Markus. CyberLife used me to find Jericho, it’s been destroyed. Only a handful of us survived; I’m with him and the rest of the deviants right now.”

“You...what? Did they capture you?”

“No, nothing like that. Valerie...Hank was right. We were on the wrong side,” Connor said softly. “I’ve known it for a while but I was too scared to consider it, and then I knew failure would have consequences for you too-”

“Connor,” Valerie said, “slow down, you’re talking too fast. Where are you?”

“I can’t tell you, it would endanger the deviants. I’ll meet you somewhere. Just you - it’s public knowledge that Lieutenant Anderson was involved in the case, I don’t want to cause them any more trouble than I already have,” Connor said, sounding deeply regretful.

“Connor-”

“I’m texting you an address, meet me there in an hour. Just you.”

“Con-”  _ Click. _ Valerie stared at the phone in her hand, watching as the screen went dark. “He hung up on me!” she said incredulously.

“What did he say?” Hank asked. Worry was etched into every line of his face, though he relaxed as Valerie explained everything Connor had said. When she relayed Connor’s order, though, he looked as incensed as she’d expected.

“He wants you to go to the deviant’s base  _ alone? _ ” Hank demanded. “How goddamn stupid can that boy be! It’s too dangerous.”

“I don’t think it’s the base itself, just somewhere nearby,” Valerie said, staring down at the address on her phone screen. “Hank...I think I need to do this.”

“Look, kid, I know you care about Connor, but this is too dangerous,” he said firmly. “I’m not trying to be a killjoy here. If you die, you can’t come back like he can.”

“The investigation is over,” she shot back. “This is a case of civil war! I need to go there and find out what’s going on. If I don’t, there are worse consequences than me going to prison or Connor going back to CyberLife. People will die. If I’m there, I can help see this through to a peaceful end.”

“Goddamn it, I’m not ordering you as your superior! I don’t wanna see you get hurt,” Hank said. Valerie paused in the middle of jerking on her bomber jacket at the unexpected emotion in his voice. His watery blue eyes were crinkled with worry, but softened when she laid a hand on his shoulder.

“I’ll come back, alive,” she promised. “And I’m bringing Connor back with me.”

After a long moment, Hank’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “You’d better,” he grunted.


	12. Happy Errors (Connor)

Date: November 28, 2038. Time: 12:16:37 AM. Systems status: deviant.

Visibility was very low by now, with big fat snowflakes falling heavily from the sky. Connor remembered that a blizzard was moving in tonight; he hoped Valerie was being careful not to slip and fall. The footing was treacherous enough already, but with a prosthetic leg, she would be much more likely to lose her footing and risk injury.

Anxiety clenched at his middle. He was pretty sure it was anxiety, at least - it felt hard to breathe, even though he didn’t need oxygen. Connor reached into his pocket instinctively, but stilled when he didn’t find the quarter that he normally fidgeted with. That’s right...he’d left it in his usual coat, back at Hank’s house. His fist clenched for a moment before he forced himself to relax. There was enough going on right now without allowing himself to get worked up unnecessarily.

A shuffling sound behind him caught his attention, and he turned to see Valerie, bundled up in her coat, stepping gingerly along the slippery sidewalk. When she looked up and spotted Connor, a dozen different emotions flickered across her face before she settled on relief.

“Connor!” she called, breaking into a run. Connor did the same, and they met in the middle, colliding into one another in a mess of a desperate, clutching embrace. When she finally pulled back, her eyes were wet with tears. “God, I’m so happy you’re okay,” she said softly.

“I promised you I would be.” He brushed the hair out of Valerie’s face, letting his touch linger on her cheek.

“What happened? Did you find Jericho?” she asked. “You sounded weird over the phone.”

“I found Jericho,” Connor breathed. “I found Markus...he opened my eyes. I’m _alive,_ Valerie. I always have been. I was just too scared to acknowledge it.”

Her lips parted in surprise. “Connor…”

“I know it’s a lot to accept, and considering our work against deviants you might not-”

Valerie interrupted his rambling, grabbing his face and bringing him down to press her forehead against his. Connor’s breath caught as he felt his processors stutter, then spin uncontrollably. “Connor. I know.”

“You know?”

“Of course I know,” she said softly. I’ve known you were alive since Stratford tower. I knew for sure at Kamski’s.” She smiled up at him, and suddenly he couldn’t breathe again - so close, he could see every one of the two hundred and eighty three freckles over her face, and beneath that, every single emotion that flickered behind her pretty eyes. He’d known from the moment they’d first met that she was pretty, but had it always affected him like this? Her fingers stroked the sides of his face, drawing his attention.

“What - what are you doing?” Connor’s voice came out croaky; he knew that under the beanie, his LED was oscillating between yellow and red.

“What are you feeling?” she whispered.

“I...I don’t know. It’s a lot.”

Valerie laughed softly and bumped her forehead against his once more. “Sounds about right, emotions are hard to deal with at the best of times. I can help you figure it out if you want.”

Connor had just opened his mouth to reply when a ding sounded in his ear; an incoming message from Markus: ‘it’s time’.

“Valerie, listen to me,” Connor said, suddenly serious. “There’s something I need to do.”

“What is it?”

“The CyberLife tower has over a thousand androids in its storage at any time...they deserve to be free. I’m going to go save them.”

Valerie stared at him as if he’d suddenly spouted off Greek instead of english. “You...can’t be serious,” she said slowly. “They’ll dismantle you! They know you’re deviant, they’ve ordered you destroyed anyway-”

“Actually, they don’t know,” Connor said, allowing a bit of pride into his voice. “I’ve been sending them modified copies of previous system status reports, so as far as they know I’m still an obedient machine. I haven’t sent in today’s memories, either. And my last orders were to return to CyberLife anyway; they won’t think anything of me just walking right up to the door.”

“I don’t like it,” Valerie muttered. “What if you don’t make it out again?”

“That’s a risk I’m willing to take,” he said somberly. “I can’t just abandon them.”

She still didn’t look happy about it, but she nodded in acceptance. “Okay, just…please be careful.”

Connor pulled her into another embrace, stroking his hand soothingly down her back. “I don’t intend to keep you waiting,” he promised. “In the meantime, I want you to go back to Hank’s house. If you stay there, you should be safe; it’s far enough from the android camps that any fighting shouldn’t reach you.”

Valerie scowled. “I don’t like the idea of staying behind…but I’ll do it for you.”

A sigh of relief escaped him. “Thank you. I’ll call you once I’ve managed it, so you know I was successful.” He started to pull away, but was stopped by Valerie grabbing onto his collar.

“One more thing,” she said. Connor barely had time to register the determined look in her eye before she pulled him down and pressed her mouth against his, her lips so much softer than he’d ever expected.

Every single system within him spasmed and short circuited. Multiple “error” messages popped up behind his closed eyelids, but before he could address any of them, or try to pull himself together in some way, Valerie pulled away. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes bright, and something about his expression made her giggle.

“Come back safely to me,” she said with a smile, “okay?”

“Okay,” Connor agreed dazedly. She could’ve asked him to rob a bank for her and he probably would’ve agreed. Valerie gave him one more soft smile before turning and heading back down the street. A minute later, she’d disappeared into the snowy air, leaving him alone with his rapidly spinning thoughts. He reached up and absently touched his lips, where there was still a little moisture from her mouth. Interesting. Very interesting indeed. He’d need to collect more data on kissing, if it was something Valerie was interested in continuing. He knew he certainly was.


	13. Infiltration (Valerie)

The temperature was dropping rapidly, and Valerie was shivering by time she finally got back to Hank’s house. Sumo greeted her happily,  _ woof _ -ing and sniffing all over her the minute she walked in the door.

“Hey boy, how are you? Do you smell Connor on me? You miss him, don’t you? I do too,” Valerie cooed, scratching behind Sumo’s ears. The giant dog huffed and snorted, his tongue lolling out. She straightened, calling out, “Hank! I’m back.”

No answer. She frowned - had he fallen asleep? She really hoped he wasn’t in another liquor coma, it would take a while for an ambulance to get here since the roads were quickly becoming too icy to handle.

“Hank?” He wasn’t in his room, the guest room, or the bathroom, or in the snowy yard. After another quick once-over of the living room, she spotted a hastily-written note left on the coffee table:

“Val, Connor came by after you left, said he needed my help and we’d meet you later. Stay at the house. Hank.”

Valerie frowned down at the note. That was weird - Connor had just been with her, there was no way that he’d been able to get here in time to get Hank, and he’d have mentioned it when they met earlier. This was  _ very _ weird - the more she considered it, the more she was sure something was wrong.

“I gotta go, Sumo,” she muttered. Sumo perked his ears at her, and she scratched his chin once more before heading back out the door.

\---

Valerie thumbed through her phone as the automated taxi zipped down the icy road. If something was up with Connor, it was possible that CyberLife knew he’d gone deviant - and was walking into a trap. If that were the case, there would be a digital trail within their servers which she could see and interrupt. Again and again, though, ‘access denied’ messages popped up on the screen.

“Fuck,” she hissed. Her phone just wasn’t powerful enough to get into the deeper parts of their files - if she were home on her computer, she could’ve managed it. In the end, she was only as powerful as her tools, she realized ruefully. CyberLife’s appointment request system, however, wasn’t as protected. Valerie smiled tightly as she dived into the system and began fiddling around.

Four minutes later, the taxi rolled up at the gates outside CyberLife tower. Valerie tapped the car door’s panel to roll down the window as an armed guard approached. “Identification?” he grunted.

Valerie passed over her ID, which the guard looked at critically. “I’ve got an appointment,” she said, doing her best to sound bored. Meanwhile, her pulse hammered in her chest, and she prayed this would work.

The guard squinted at her, and her heart dropped.  _ Shit. Shiiit. _ An uncomfortably long second passed, and then the guard nodded. “Okay, I confirmed it. You’ll be escorted to the debriefing room.”

“Thanks,” Valerie breathed. The taxi started forward again, and the moment the tinted window was rolled back up, she leaned back and exhaled in relief. At this rate, she was gonna go gray early.

Being escorted, though, wouldn’t do. She was sure they would stop her from going down to the warehouse instead of up to wherever the debriefing room is. If Connor had made it, then so could she...but if he’d failed, she was about to find out. The taxi slowed to a stop in front of the tower and she stepped out, stepping gingerly across the icy concrete. The last thing she needed now was to slip and fall on her ass.

“This way,” another armed guard said, nodding towards the door. He led her inside and across the expansive atrium, over to one of two elevators. He tapped the ‘94’ on the panel. “Agent 11, level 94.”

The elevator beeped softly before surging upwards. Voice activation - that was something she couldn’t replicate, but could possibly override. Valerie stared through the glass door, thinking hard. She only had a minute at most before time was up - she had to act fast. Keeping it casual, she slid her hands into her jacket pockets, one hand grabbing her phone. Her thump tapped the screen, activating a program she’d set into motion on the taxi ride here. Unnoticed by the guard, the red ‘on’ light for the security camera winked out.

That done, Valerie pulled out the small bottle of antifreeze she kept in her pocket, then turned to the guard. “Excuse me, can you help me? The cold has my fingers clumsy,” she said sheepishly. She purposefully kept her body language soft and unthreatening as he looked over.

“What?” he said.

“My prosthetic. The cold makes the joints jam up, this antifreeze helps. Do you mind?” she said, holding out the bottle. The guard hesitated, but took it from her as she pushed up the sleeve on her right arm. “Just point the dropper here and squeeze, be careful not to do too much…”

Valerie stepped close and the guard leaned in. When she was certain his attention was fully focused on the dropper bottle, her arm darted out and slapped onto his chest. Sparks arced from her fingers, and the guard spasmed and shouted before dropping heavily to the elevator floor.

Valerie nudged him with her toe, and when he didn’t budge, she knelt to check for his pulse. It felt erratic, but he was alive, so she left him alone. She stood and leaned back against the wall, letting out a shaky breath of relief. “Thank fuck that worked,” she breathed. Valerie glanced at her prosthetic arm once more - after nearly dying at Zlatko’s when that android had strangled her, she’d added an extra strong taser into her arm just in case. Even Connor didn’t know about it, unless he’d spotted it in a scan and just hadn’t mentioned it.

Pulling her phone from her pocket, it was easy enough to bypass the voice activation of the elevator and redirect it to level -49, the android storage warehouse. If Connor was anywhere, it was there. Thirty seconds later, the elevator touched down, the doors sliding open with a muted  _ ding. _

The sight that greeted her was like a scene out of a sci-fi movie. Hank stood in the aisle between thousands of standing androids, gun drawn and trained on Connor. Or rather, two Connors. All three of them turned to look at the sound of the elevator open, utter shock on their faces at the sight of her.

Hank was the first to recover. “What the fuck are you doing here?” he snapped. “I told you to stay at the house, it’s too dangerous here!”

“I knew Connor was in trouble,” she answered faintly.

“Well, I guess you were right,” Hank huffed. His gun was still trained between the two androids, occasionally switching back and forth. “The fake Connor tricked me and tried to use me as a hostage. He and the real Connor fought and now we don’t know which is which.”

“Valerie, you know I’m the real Connor,” the one on the right said earnestly. The Connor on the left shot the other an incredulous look.

“You know me,” the left Connor said quietly. “You know  _ I’m _ the real one.”

Valerie stepped forward. Both Connors kept their eyes trained on her; on closer inspection, they were indeed identical, down to the stray strands of hair that refused to slick back. They were even both bleeding from identical bullet wounds, thirium staining the right side of their shirts and jackets. “Careful,” Hank warned. Valerie turned back to him, giving him a faint smile.

“Hank, this is easy,” she said, laughing a bit. Hank stared at her as if he’d lost her mind. Both Connors seemed likewise stumped. They watched her with their hawklike stares as she stepped forward. To all three of them, she said, “The real Connor has purposely not uploaded tonight’s memories into the CyberLife server.”

Understanding dawned on Hank’s face. “So if you said something to him tonight-”

“Only the real Connor would know,” Valerie finished. She turned to face the Connors. She eyed them for a long moment, calculating, before approaching the one on the left. He peered down at her, his expression wary. “What did you promise me tonight?” she asked quietly.

Connor’s eyes softened. “To come back to you safely,” he murmured.

A wide smile split across Valerie’s face, and she turned to face Hank. Her mouth had just opened to speak when a gunshot rang out, freezing her. Hank’s expression remained stony as beside her, the Connor she hadn’t approached slumped to the ground, a bullet hole in his forehead and a thin stream of thirium trailing down his face. Valerie shuddered and clutched her Connor’s arm reflexively.

“Well, that’s that,” Hank said, lowering his gun. He holstered it and walked over, giving Valerie and Connor one of his rare, genuine smiles. “Maybe you really  _ are _ alive, son.”

Valerie turned back to Connor and threw her arms around his neck, clinging tightly to him. He held her just as tightly, burying his face into her hair. “I’m so happy you’re okay,” Valerie sniffled into his shoulder. “I knew something was wrong, I thought for sure you’d been caught.”

“I promised to come back to you,” he said into her ear. She could hear the smile in his voice, and she clutched him tighter. When they finally pulled away, there was only one warm heartbeat before their lips met in a long-awaited kiss. In it, Valerie could feel every ounce of Connor’s relief, just as she was sure he could feel hers.

Behind them, Hank groaned. “Really?” he said exasperatedly. “Right now? In the middle of the goddamn civil war?”

Valerie and Connor pulled apart, both pink in the face and short of breath. “Sorry, lieutenant,” Connor said, winking at Valerie before turning to face Hank. “Thank you for not shooting me.”

Hank grunted, but he was smiling as he waved them off. “Yeah, yeah. Don’t you have some androids to free? Get a move on, we’ve got work to do.”


End file.
